RIYADH: Prince Dr. Turki Bin Saud Bin Muhammad, Deputy President of King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) for Research Institutes, has said the 1st Five-Year Plan for science, technology and innovation has till now financed strategic research projects in universities and other research centers with SR1 billion grants. In a statement issued Thursday, Prince Turki, who is also Chairman of the Supervisory Committee for the National Plan for Science, Technology and Innovation, said this great qualitative change at the national and regional level comes within the sphere of the program for the development of strategic technologies in the Kingdom. Prince Turki said the strategic technologies program aims to localize and develop technologies in 11 strategic fields and four vital fields for the Kingdom, which form the foundation for developing well-established national entities for science, technology and innovation based on a sustainable and cohesive system for research and development. This would guarantee achieving fast development with the objective of giving a push to the wheel of economic growth as well as its sustainability through building a knowledge-based economy and society, Prince Turki said. About the kind of research projects presented, Prince Turki said in their selection they have taken precise international criteria into consideration so as to guarantee scientific quality and high creativity and that their results should reflect on national development in the Kingdom. Prince Turki said the National Program for Strategic Technologies has a goal to bring the total strategic research grants approved for universities and research and development centers in different institutions to about SR900 million annually.
